Birds know how to read Japanese, put language learners to shame

Wait, do these birds know more kanji than some foreigners who’ve lived in Japan for years and never learned to read??

Well, after all the birds were born in Japan and grew up seeing it all around them. It’s only natural for them to pick it up, so perhaps they have an unfair advantage. Anyway, no bird has passed any level of the tough Kanji Kentei tests. Yet…

Bird brains, you say? Pffft. Here they are, nesting in this unusual “tree”. In fact, this is a Japanese kanji character which means “tree” or “wood”. This pictogram resembles a large tree with the branches curving down to cover the ground below.

If you’re learning Japanese and you didn’t know that already, you have some catching up to do!